“Look, Star Wars is one of my favorite movies of all time. I frankly feel that – I almost feel that, in a weird way, the opportunity for whomever it is to direct that movie, it comes with the burden of being that kind of iconic movie and series. I was never a big Star Trek fan growing up, so for me, working on Star Trek didn’t have any of that, you know, almost fatal sacrilege, and so, I am looking forward more than anyone to the next iterations of Star Wars, but I believe I will be going as a paying moviegoer!”

“I have very little to say about it,” sayeth Trevorrow. “Certainly, no specifics about what’s going on behind the scenes in the selection of that person [a director]. I think that I can speak as a Star Wars fan, which is important to me. Whoever does do this movie, I think, just needs to have a fundamental understanding of why it’s important to us. We come from a generation who grew up with this as children, to us it’s almost a belief system. It’s harder for people who are older or who were already teenagers when the movie came out to understand how deeply it is our mythology. And there are a bunch of incredible directors who are up for this job… I think whoever gets it will have that fundamental understanding of why Star Wars matters so much to a billion people. It’s just incredible. So that’s all I can say about that. I’m equally excited about it. … that’s all you’re gonna get!”

Alright, I honestly don’t really have a craving to see Abrams’ spin on Star Wars and — despite the true goodness of Safety Not Guaranteed — I really don’t get why his name is garnering buzz for this save for the fact that he’s apparently a massive Star Wars fan… like that’s some kind of rarity.

Who do I want to see direct? In case you didn’t read this week’s Ask the Bastards, my answer is Guillermo del Toro because, and I’m quoting myself from Ask:

He is an unparalleled visual story teller who doesn’t need to poke us in the eye with over-abundant CG or purposeless sentiment. Add to that his seeming enthusiasm for nerd-centric projects and it seems like he may be the anti-Lucas.

Is Warners sending a message about what happens if del Toro pulls out of the Justice League Dark discussions?

We need del Toro. We need someone who doesn’t need an earth shattering budget to stun us, someone who respects economy on the screen so that when the McDuck vault swings open he won’t go overboard and create a busy, dizzy mess with pixelated behemoths and painted smoke.

del Toro is an artist and a storyteller and he would perfectly team with Michael Arndt, the annointed scriptwriter. Sadly though, kittens eventually grow up and die and your parents didn’t really love you, because del Toro has a busy schedule and he doesn’t think Star Wars 7: Ewoks on the Loose will happen with him in the director’s chair.

You know, I saw it on the Internet, but I haven’t approached them, they haven’t formally approached me. I mean, I heard some rumblings, but to me it’s really — I have so many projects to discuss or think about. [For] something that is not a possibility yet, I don’t do that. You know, because I have so many things that I need to catch up with. If this becomes ever a reality, and there’s an approach to do it, I would then think about it, but — it’s like thinking if I want to date a supermodel. I don’t think about these things.” (via Fanhattan)

What does this mean? Well, we need to hope Disney reaches out to del Toro, hope he acquires the desire to work himself past the point of exhaustion, and we need to kickstarter him a supermodel love connection to show him that miracles really can come true.

On the other side of the coin, there is one director who isn’t pulling the humble “Who, me?” card out, and that’s Jon Favreau, aka the guy who helped birth Marvel’s in-house movie-verse. Favreau doesn’t play the humble game. He’s a straight shooter who clearly (not really) wants us to let him near aliens and Harrison Ford again (maybe, we’re not really sure). How’s he going to accomplish that goal? An all out ass-kissing assault.

“I think both J.J. and I come from a generation of people who formed our whole creative persona around what we experienced as kids from watching those films, and I have had the good fortune of working with George [Lucas] and around George, and whether it is doing a voice on Clone Wars, or being at the Skywalker Ranch mixing Iron Man – so I have been very happy and lucky to just experience the culture that Lucas has created, both in my own life growing up as a kid and professional – whether it was interviewing him at film festivals on stage, he is just a really wonderful, talented gifted guy who has changed the business so much, so I am just giddy, first and foremost as a fan, to see what happens with it. I think there is a lot of question marks of how they are going to do it, and who they are going to do it with, and what the story is going to be about; but to say that I am not excited about it is definitely an understatement. We’ll see.” (via

I can’t fault the Favinator on this one. For all of his faults and his seeming disdain for our kind, Lucas is the nerd all-father and apparently he is going to have a big role in the shape and direction of this trilogy.

Here’s part two of that interview Kathleen Kennedy and Lucas gave. In this segment, Lucas and Kennedy talk about Lucas’ in a Disney/Star Wars collaboration.